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With blistering attacks on the west and extolling coverage of Russia’s head honchos, Russian TV channels are making inroads in Moldova’s media market.

In a 2011 film, the Marvel Comics character Captain America has a mission to stop the mastermind villain Red Skull from using an artifact called the Tesseract as a source of energy to dominate the world. Red Skull is a character depicted as the archenemy of Captain America, the patriotic super-soldier in the eponymous movie serial. Captain America is armed with a shield that is almost unbreakable. He uses it to fight his foes; and he always wins.

Substitute Captain America with the Russian president Vladimir Putin and Red Skull with a western country and you get a sliver of the Russian television diet in Moldova, an eastern European nation with a population of 3.5 million, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.

Controversial entrepreneur Vlad Plahotniuc has gained control over two more media outlets, namely the TV stations CTC Moldova and Super TV, according to Agora.md. The deal was sealed at the beginning of 2016. The local broadcast regulator has confirmed that the deal was concluded.

CTC Moldova and Super TV were acquired by the company Real Radio, company owned by Dorin Pavelescu. Mr Pavelescu has business links with Mr Plahotniuc, according to a recent investigation from RISE. Mr Pavelescu is the head of the advertising agency Casa Media Plus, which is headquartered at the same address as General Media Group, Mr Plahotniuc’s media conglomerate. General Media Group owns Public TV, Prime TV, Canal 2 and Canal 3.